When the iPhone SDK first came out, there was a disconnect between how futuristic the iPhone was and how, well… not Objective-C was.

For many new developers, Objective-C was seen as an ugly, obscure language — something you merely put up with in exchange for the privilege of developing on this amazing new platform. That was certainly the case for me when I wrote my first app. But over time, I learned to appreciate the beauty of the language and its frameworks.

I started NSHipster in July 2012 as a way to share my newfound passion. At the time, the term “hipster” was tossed around frequently as a casual pejorative for people who ironically enjoyed obscure or bad things. What better term for someone excited about Objective-C, right? Rather than being ashamed or annoyed by the language we used in our day-to-day, it felt good to turn it around and say “Oh, this? It’s an obscure API. You’ve probably never heard of it.”

Today marks six years since I first launched NSHipster (which is a big milestone for all of you out there counting in base-6). To mark the occasion, I’m very excited to announce my return as the managing editor of NSHipster.

I’m extremely thankful to Nate Cook for his stewardship of NSHipster. During my tenure at Apple from 2015 to 2018, I was unable to contribute to the site; it’s entirely thanks to him that NSHipster exists today. His contributions to Swift are extraordinary and immeasurable, and we all benefit immensely as a community from his work.

I don’t think I can overstate how important NSHipster was to my early career in iPhone app development. I already had a few years of app development experience when the site launched, but the techniques I learned from Mattt1 helped me transition from a student writing apps to being a professional developer.